Day 9 - The Finish

LaRose to Grand Isle

The night at the Apple Inn in LaRose was not much of a step above tenting out, except for the warm shower. When I got up the next morning there was no place close to eat so I fired up the stove and made coffee and oatmeal. I guess I should have stopped earlier or heeded the waring of a sign in the office window, the hurricane Gustav reopening certificate. When I was checking out of the motel there was another client who came to the office and wanted a beer, note that it was 8:40 in the morning but the man at the front desk opened the bar and got him a beer.

I didn't ride very far before passing the 12 Monkeys Internet Cafe and Coffee shop. I had planned on updating my blog and even at the $3 / 15 minute rate, I figured it would be worth getting something down in my blog. When I arrived I found out that the Internet was broken. A service call had been put in to the tech in Houma but no ETA. I offered to take a look at it, explaining that I had just retired and had some experience with computers and networking. The manager Susan agreed and I went to work with limited access. The three desktop computers could talk to the access point just fine but the access point was not passing the DNS information from the cable modem. After additional discussion and no login access to the access point, I felt it was with the cable provider since Susan had called them and they had no record of an Internet account. She figured the Internet was coming in some other method and thus put in the call for the tech. We spent almost an hour discussing land loss, oil companies, hurricanes, and the trucks on the road.

I was back to riding against a headwind. My progress was slow and things to break the wind were scares. I pushed on until I got to Cut Off where I passed a building right on the bayou which was a net shop. I had never seen a net shop before (or noticed this one since it had been here since 1948). After taking a photo or two I decided to go meet the two men who were in the shop making nets. I went and introduced myself and they invited me to step over the board at the door and come in. The board was to keep the dog off the highway. His name was BoBo and was a bull dog who appeared to spend most of his day sleeping on the nets. The owner to the net shop was Troy Terrebonne and he had taken over the shop from his father who had taken the shop over from his grandfather. Troy said he was the last of it since neither one of his boys was interested in taking over the shop from him. He said his son does better cutting grass than making nets. Troy said with the price of shrimp down due to cheap imports there are less fisherman than there once were.

I stopped at Mommie Jo's for lunch and had a shrimp salad. I wonder if the shrimp were local or imported? I wanted something light that I could ride with and the shrimp salad seemed to do the trick. The restaurant sat right on Bayou Lafourche and had a great view of the bayou. There was seating outside but I ate inside to get a chance to cool off.

The next town I peddled through was Golden Meadow, which is famous for it's speed traps. I never got a ticket in Golden Meadow but have heard the stories since I was a little boy going to vacation in Grand Isle with may family. I wasn't worried about this trip on my bike since the lowest limit was 25 MPH and that is really pushing it and I don't have a downhill to push it on. I guess the stories are true because not only did the have a sign about speed limit enforced by radar I saw an election bumper sticker for “Radar Dickie Cheramie – Port Commission”. The one thing I was interested is seeing in Golden Meadow was the Petit Caporal which was the first motorized vessel in the area powered by a 3 HP tractor motor which was installed in 1902. The vessel had been built in 1854 and had operated under sail. The vessel was in very poor shape. It was a real shame to see history rotten away.

Once you pass Golden Meadow you pass the levee and everything that matters is built on stilts. I was headed for Leaville and had no protection from the wind that was blowing off the gulf almost straight towards me. Now I know what biking in The Netherlands must be like. I got across the bridge Leaville by walking over the first half of it. Very little shoulder and lot of traffic, that with the headwind made me to slow a target for my confront. I only got 21 MPH on the downside of the bridge but with the headwind it felt like 40 or more. The headwind keep up until I made the turn at Port Fourchon. After the turn I lost most of the traffic also. Lot of road construction around Port Fourchon.

I made it to the bridge at Caminada Bay which leads to Grand Isle about 5 PM, and once across I stopped in at the Bridge Side Marine for a fishing license, some bait and a beer. I continued on down LA1 headed for the Grand Isle State Park, which I had heard it was closed and then heard it was open for day use only but when I got there I found the gates chained shut and no sign as to when it may open. There was a lot of work that needed to be done after the hurricane last year. On the way I ran into Mary and Susan from Minnesota. They flagged me down and ask where I was going. After explaining the ride and I was almost at the end they offered to come down and take my photograph. In conversation I learned that Mary had ridden an all ladies ride of the Mississippi River and then a sub-group rode on into Canada.

I took what I though was LA1 to the Sand Dollar Marina and got my picture taken and checked my map to confirm I had completed the ride when I discovered that the dead end road I turned off of was LA1 and I still have a 100 yards to ride to finish so I road back out and make the last little bit. After another picture, I went and got a room at the marina. The only rooms they had left had 4 bunk beds but as long as the shower worked I was find with that.

After getting cleaned up I met Mr and Mrs Hollier for dinner. They are my sons grandparents and we had dinner at the Light House Restaurant. I had the grilled red snapper and baked sweet potato which was a good choice. The Holliers said that the Light House has the best steaks on the island. Besides the restaurant, they also have a meat distributor business that supplies the offshore business of Port Fourchon so a lot of meat goes through there hands.

Stats
54.41 miles total
21.8 max
- crossed 500 miles on the island

Day 8 (Earth Day)

Thibodaux to LaRose

Got up and packed and was able to roll out of the Deauville Motel about 9:00 AM and planned to seeing some of Thibodaux before heading south on LA1. Like Donaldsonville, Thibodaux sits on Bayou Lafourche and LA1 for the most part follows Bayou Lafourche from this point south.to Leeville where all the waterways and marsh run together. Thibodaux is a more lively town and like Natchitoches the may be because it has a university to help keep the town alive. I first went to the chamber of commencer and got information about Thibodaux and the route south.

After leaving I first went to Jean Lafitte National Historic Park. I had two chance meetings while there, the first was with Dave, a deputy with the Lafourche Parish Sheriff's office. We talked about riding and I found out his interest was driven by the fact that he trained bike cops in the area. He said they road about 40 miles a night but that was a lot tougher the the 50 to 70 I was riding a day with my load. He told me about them riding both down and up stairs, through the high crime areas and some of there experiences. He ask me about my experiences so far on the trip and told him how nice everyone had been. He was wearing a Grand Isle Tarpon Rodeo shirt and said he has some more at home and to help me 'fit in' in Grand Isle offered me one. He lived on LA1 and gave me his phone number so I told him I would drop by when I passed. The second chance meeting was when I met a photographer from the Thibodaux Daily Comet news paper, Abby Tabor who had come to take some photos of the trees that the library upstairs was giving away as part of Earth Day. He ask me come back by the news paper which was also right on LA1 to talk about my ride. When I got parked and inside Abby introduced me to Lloyd Nelson who sat down with me and we talked about the ride and why I decided to make it. You can find the article at: http://www.dailycomet.com/article/20090423/ARTICLES/904239939?Title=Baton-Rouge-man-bicycling-the-length-of-La-1.

After our discussion I was on my way this time to find a place for lunch. I had ask several people got different answers from each but settled on Fremin's which was on 3rd street in an old drug store. The building dated back to 1878. It was across from the court house and had a good lunch business. All the tables were full so I ate at the bar. I chose the daily special of Chicken Roulade which was s chicken breast stuffed with shrimp and baked and served with a cream sauce. It was very good and I would recommend Fremin's to anyone in the area. The waitress Rhonda was very helpful and even met me at the door after seeing me get my water bottles and start to walk back inside. She had been riding her bike to work until it was stolen several months earlier.

After lunch I headed out and made my way for LA1 South. It was getting late and if I didn't want to get caught on the road after dark I needed to make some miles. When I passed the landmark Dave, my sheriff friend had told me I gave him a call and he was waiting for me in his golf cart at by the road with two shirts and a hat. I only had room for one shirt and the hat and we talked about his house and the work he had done to restore it, it was over a hundred years old. I took me on a tour of it before I headed out. Dave even left me with his mobile phone number in case I needed help down the road. The good will of people amaze me.

My next stop was a planned stop in Lockport at Effective Solar Products. I had met Aaron at the ISA show the week before, during one of my off days. We had discussed solar charging of things like cell phones and how we could mount something on a bike to do this. My ride would be over before something like that could be purchased but for future rides it would be handy. He gave me a tour of the shop and we talked about solar for homes and field instrumentation. It happened to be Earth Day, and I didn't plan it that way but some many things on this trip just fell into place at just the right time I though that being at a business on LA1 that sold solar power products on Earth Day for just about perfect.

I rode on to LaRose and not finding a campground within 10 miles decided to stay in a motel for the night. I got a room at the Apple Inn.

From the motel I can see a sign, 44 miles to Grand Isle!

Stats
43.48 total miles
23.9 max (coming down a bridge)
7.5 hours on the road, lots of visiting along the way...

Day 7

Plaquemine to Thibodaux

After getting all the kids off to school (JoAnn flew out to Freeport earlier that morning), and some of the other errons I had to get done, I set out for my old employee's visitor parking lot. I knew my truck should be safe with the security presents. By the time I got there and loaded up it was a little later than I had hoped but all works out for the best. I called my old riding buddy Chris and he met me at one of the favorite lunch spots in Plaquemine, Fat Daddy’s Poboy shop. Fat Daddy’s is mostly known for serving root beer in frozen mugs so that is what I had with my shrimp poboy and fries. I knew that may not be a good lunch to ride on but I had no idea how bad a choice I had made. The food was great as usually but I tasted that poboy for the next five hours…

After lunch I rode back over to the Plaquemine Locks State Historical Site. It had been years since my last visit. There were a large group of school child visiting the locks on a field trip. There were stations setup to discuss the function of the locks, firetruck demo, and net making. The old Cajun teaching net making ask one of the kids what grade they were in and made a joke that 1st grade was the best 3 years of his school life. None of the kids laughed, maybe they didn’t do the math. Inside the locks building I met the ranger Stan Richardson who even offered to let me go upstairs to the old radio room which is not the rangers office. This offered a nice look at the river and locks. The locks opened this month in 1909 and they had a celebration earlier in the month and even broke a bottle of champagne like they did when the locks opened.

I left Plaquemine and head for White Castle. The headwind was a killer so I took a detour at Bayou Goula to revisit the worlds smallest church which was built in 1903 after a poor Italian sugar farmer’s son recovered for a life threating sickness. Anthono Gullo had prayed that if his son recovered he would build a church. He and the community pitched in to fulfill his pledge. Someone donated the land and others the lumber and this church is the result. I met two of the five retired men who keep the church up. They were there to hang a candle holder they had repainted. What was funny was I got there they were just arriving also and went to a small box on the front of the church and got the key to the door out and opened the door. When I got closer I noticed that the box was labeled ‘Key’. Where else would the keep the key to the front door in a labeled box on that attached to front of the church.

After leaving the church, I headed south on river road and arrived at Nottaway plantation. Nottaway is my favorite plantation, looking like something out of a southern fairy tale. If you are going to see only one southern plantation then Nottaway is the plantation to see. It faces the river and is a great view to see approaching from river road.

The next town I came to was Donaldsonville which if history serves me right was temporally the capital of Louisiana. It was also the about the northern most point of the pirate Lafitte’s empire. I took a few minutes to drive through the old part of town and while driving around Paul Marchand stopped me and we talked about biking. He has a Thursday group that rides at 5 from his rental properties. He said some Thursdays he rides alone but still enjoys every outing.
After leaving Donaldsonville I headed to Napoleonville where I planned to find a place to spend the night. I did find the Episcopal church that seem to church I remember standing in Bob Brennecki’s wedding at. The thing I remember the most about the wedding was the drive down with TC Taylor. I laughed at TC until I was in tears. I started looking for a place to stay and the search for camping turned up nothing. A search on hotel turned up one hit but after a call I figured out that not only does the place not have a business center it is not a place I should ride in on a bike. The room comes with dinner and breakfast for two. Even with the discount for one person and no meals the price was still twice what I was willing to pay so I continued on to Thibodaux. It was almost dark when I arrived in Thibodaux, and I was ready for a shower so camping was not on my search list. I stopped at the very first mom and pop motel I saw and got a room. The only available room happened to be on the second floor. I packed my bike fully loaded up the stairs which was not a good idea. Nothing happened but took more effort that if I had made several trips. A shower sure felt good.

Stats
65.43 miles total
21.6 max
started about noon and finished at 8:00

Weekend Off

Taking the weekend off, I know I just had a break… The weather is calling for thunderstorms for the weekend (even though at the writing of this entry Sunday the weather is beautiful), and tonight I have a concert to go to that my son is performing in with his high school band, “Moonlight and Jazz” at White Oak Plantation. I have to judge the State Science Fair on Monday so no reason to push farther away from home.

I plan to start out again on Tuesday, with the last 150 miles to go. JoAnn will pick me up in Grand Isle on the weekend and I plan to fish until she gets there.

The Last Leg

View Larger Map

Day 6

After a day off to attend a work related event my wife drove me out to Camile’s in Erwinville to start the day. The road east of Erwinville is good by has ‘wake up’ bumps molded into the concrete across the entire shoulder which I though would be a bit of a problem. It turned out that there was enough gap at the outside of the shoulder to ride and the bumps are not as bad as the ones cut into the asphalt which will rattle your eye teeth.

The pipeline that is under construction is coming along well. I looked to be a 20 inch or bigger carbon steel pipeline with 6 inches of insulation. When I made my test ride from Erwinville to New Roads during Mardi Gras the pipeline was being laid out and welding was starting, it is mostly buried now and finishing work is being done in this section east of Erwinville.

Against a building headwind I made it to Port Allen and the old hot spot before the Mississippi Bridge referred to as the Gold Coast. Many years ago this was the hot nightspot for the late night partiers coming from Baton Rouge. A quick ride across the bridge and into another parish with different rules for nightclubs supported the Gold Coast for years. By the time I came of age it was dieing. It not is a mixture of low rate strip joints, massage parlor, and a church that is in the building of an old nightclub. What a mixture.

After turning south at the bridge where Hwy 190 and LA1 split, I headed south to Port Allen. I stopped by the parish museum to find them open but preparing for a large group of women who are the wives of the area fire chief’s. I decided to delay my tour of the facilities to another day.

I road down some of the back streets of Port Allen to the old ferry landing to get a river view of Baton Rouge. After a few minute break I headed back out to make my crossing of the Intracoastal Bridge. The smell in this section of LA1 is especially good. Community Coffee (my favorite) has a processing plant at the foot of the New Mississippi River Bridge (I10) and when they are roasting coffee the smell is so good. I could just sit there and enjoy. I knew this would be tough since there were no shoulder and with the wind pushing on me from the east, hitting me broadside. I watched for a break in the traffic and headed out. Going up was slow and the wind was hitting me from my left side was getting stronger since I was on the bridge above anything to disrupt it. The traffic was generous and I made it to the top of the bridge and started shifting gears. I dropped into the tallest gear for my middle front sprocket and was going 30 mph at the bottom with the wind hitting me in puffs of 30+ blowing me towards the right side of the bridge. What a ride but I never felt out of control.

I met my wife and some of our friends from the plant for lunch at DC’s Grill. I had the Caribbean Salad, which is my favorite thing they make. It is a green salad with fruit and nuts, with a red tangy dressing they make topped with blue cheese and chicken.

After lunch the rest of the group went back to work and I went back to peddling in the headwind. This is the section of LA1 that is the most familiar to me. I have been driving it daily for more than 30 years. I made a stop at Cinclare’s sugar mill, which is now closed but processed sugar from the surrounding fields up until several years ago. I stopped and looked at the sugar trains that have been out front by the American flag for some years now. They are small diesel powered engines used in the mill at some point.

I headed out in the headwind again and peddled past Dow Chemical’s Louisiana Operations where I had just retired. I do miss the people but not getting up every morning and making that 25-mile drive into work.

I made it to Plaquemine and stopped at Zeto’s snowball shop for a snowball while I waited for my wife to pick me up. With the rain and wind predicted for the weekend and my son having a concert on Sunday I am taking the weekend off and will start back on my trek on Tuesday. I have to judge the State Science fair on Monday. I plan to park at Dow and ride from there down to the coast and fish until JoAnn can come pick me up at the end of the week.

Stats
30.69 miles
30.3 max

Break

Not to disappoint all my readers but I am taking a down day, not that my body doesn’t need it but it does, but because there is an ISA function in town and I need to keep up to speed in my field so I keep my edge and will be in a better position to find employment after the ride.

Day 5

Riding Marksville to Erwinville on Tax Day (and I filed an extension ;-)

After a restful but short night at Paragon Casino and Resort, I got up at 5:30, wide awake and started getting ready. I moved the bike around and started loading it up, and yes I ask about valet parking the bike (for other Jeff) and was told they had never been ask but since they were not allowed to valet motorcycles they felt they would not be able to valet my bike either. That settled I headed for breakfast at the buffet. Breakfast was nice and I tried to eat healthier than I had done last night, more fruits and balanced that two steaks.

I got on the road a little after 8:00 headed for New Roads or beyond with the goal of getting far enough that my wife could meet me for a night at home in my own bed!
After a very helpful stop at the Avoyelles parish visitor center and LSU ag center I got back on the road.

When I entered into Simmesport I ran into some of the Southern Tier riders I had been hearing about. At the dinner Joel and Nate, two college age young men were patching a tube. The Southern Tier ride is a ride from San Diego to Florida, about 4000 miles in total. I ran into three Southern Tier riders the month before at Avondale (our local Boy Scout camp). They had tented out at the Scout reservation and we fed them dinner and breakfast the next day. One of the riders Tony was from the UK and raising money to purchase a special bike for a handicap kid in England. You can track his progress at www.bike4gus.com. Anyway, Joel got his tube fixed and we all three crossed the Atchafalaya bridge together (safety in numbers). There route took them off of LA1 at the foot of the bride but I had made arrangements with them to meet them back in St Francisville that night with some new tubes.

You see a lot of thing on the side of the road while riding your bike. Some things discarded, some things dead, some things lost. Road kill is an interesting think (except for the smell). You can tell a lot about the area from the road kill. In the country you see a lot of wild animals, and the farm lands you see more birds, in the city you see domestic animals, but now that I am in the Atchafalaya basin I saw a flattened bull frog. This was no normal frog for those who have not seen one of these frogs. The things are big and served for dinner in Cajun country. If you laid this frog on a 13” dinner plate he would hang off both sides!

Not far down the road while stopped at a filling station for some water and a bathroom, another one of the Southern Tier riders showed but. His name was Dave and he was riding a recumbent bike. A recumbent bike is a bike with a chair and you sit like you are sitting in a sports car seat and the peddles are in front of you. He had a wind shield on the front and then a bike sock that completely covered him and extended to the back of the bike with only his head sticking out. The sock was in the design of an American flag. What a wild looking setup. We road together for a few miles until his route took him onto a rural road and I stayed on LA1.

We met up again after crossing the Morganza spillway. When I got ready to cross the spillway I looked at the two lane road without a shoulder to ride on and said a little prayer, asking God to help me get across this thing safely. There was some traffic on this road this morning but most were going fast. Most people will give you plenty of room but if another car is coming in the opposite direction, some will cut you close rather than slow down and pass when it is safe. Well I got started on this one mile plus bridge and was passed by a few cars and trucks when an SUV came up behind me. There were some cars in the opposite lane and was thankful they were waiting for an opportunity to pass me. After they passed I got over as far as I could and the SUV did pass. I soon relived that they were riding behind me for the rest of the bridge at 13 mph as a blocker. When I ask for safe passage, I wasn’t asking for a defender but that is what God send me! Once over the bridge they passed and we waved. I took a short break to take some pictures when Dave showed up on his recumbent. I later found out that the two Canadians I had met earlier called him Captain America. Our routes parted again and we said good bye again and I headed on down LA1 towards New Roads.

Back to the things you find along the road, I have seen some things that you wouldn’t expect, things that folks lost and wish they hadn’t. I found a set of keys above Natchitoches and gave them to Scott at the visitor center. Then there was the wallet I found near Shreveport that only had a faded receipt in it and I through away at my next stop, but just below New Roads I found a Motorola cell phone. It was in remarkable condition considering the spill in much have taken. It was still on but there was no signal for there carrier. I keep riding expecting it to ring any time, which would have been fun. I had decided how to answer it when it did ring, something about ‘hello, I a lost phone…’, but I passed a Parish Sheriff issuing a traffic violation and gave it to him, so much for my fun with answering the lost phone.

I made it to Erwinville where my JoAnn meet me and we had dinner at Camile’s dinner. This is a local restaurant that has been here every since I can remember but I had never eaten there. I had heard it was good and wanted to but the one time we had made the drive from Baton Rouge to have dinner on my birthday, they were closed (Monday). So we went into this old style dinner and I had a seafood stuffed potato with crabmeat top. Quite good but more than I could eat even after riding 60+ miles.

After dinner we went home where I took a long soaking bath and got dressed to head to St. Franciville to meet the Southern Tier riders who were camped just outside of town at Green Acers Campground. We picked up some Abita beer and headed up LA 61. JoAnn’s mobile bike parts and repair delivered Joel’s order for some new tubes and patch kits, and the use of a floor pump to the other riders. We visited for a while and traded email addresses. What a crew they made and the amazing thing is they just meet up on the route. There was the two collage age Canadians, Joel and Nate, Dave and Mark from California (but didn’t start together), and Carl from Alaska. Dave, Mark and Carl are retired. I guess who can take off this sort of time but retired or collage age folk. For more information on the Southern Tier ride or other tours see http://www.adventurecycling.org/.

Stats
64.88 total miles
26.9 mph max
* crossed 300 total miles in New Roads